Moves and Countermoves: Hannah
Chapter 4: The Welcome Makeover
Wednesday 1 July
The Capitol.
"Why the delay?" her father asks. After two days of wearing loose clothing he is back in his reaping clothes because they are now in the Capitol. Hannah had seen it from the window as the train began to slow down. It had looked like lots of vertical blocks on an island from far away, but as they had gotten closer, Hannah realised that those vertical blocks were taller than any tree she had ever seen in her life. Sky scrappers. That is what they called them in her father's book, and they did literally scrape the sky. But it had gone very fast and the window had shown nothing but darkness for maybe half an hour now.
"There were a few fatal accidents on the line", Euphemia Coin enters her and her father's train compartment. She had left the compartment around the same time and the longer she was away the more her father had paced up and down the compartment, hands making fists as if he was ready to fight, and his muttering got angrier and angrier. "Apparently the station is packed and when everyone heard our train approaching, it started a stampede, the train couldn't stop in time".
Her father nods. Biting his lip. He seems worried to Hannah. Nervous. She has never witnessed him in this manner.
Hannah gets up from where she has been staring at her reflection in the mirror and walks over to her father and puts her hand in his. She has seen Euphemia Coin do it once or twice these past two days and it always seems to soothe him.
Her father picks her up and crushes her into his embrace.
"They're all here for her, Mitch", Euphemia, joins him by his side. She too looks worried and nervous.
"Well, that can only be a good thing, right?"
And Euphemia Coin nods.
She is most odd, Euphemia Coin. She asks Hannah odd questions like what her favourite colour is or what her favourite food is, and she won't settle for I don't know, or just one word answers, Hannah always has to explain to her why. She asks Hannah about her father and Sae, and what it was like to live alone in the forest. Some of her answers, Hannah can see make her upset.
Euphemia Coin also has odd rules on how to eat, how to sit, how to talk to people, and it is a good thing that Hannah is a fast learner, because Euphemia Coin has a lot of rules.
Now that she is not trying to kill her, Hannah finds her quite a fascinating person to watch. 'Quite', that is a word that Euphemia Coin likes to say a lot. She also emphaises on saying 'please' and 'thank-you' when you want something and after it has been giving to you, and 'I beg you pardon'. Which is a phrase that Hannah had never heard before but it means 'excuse me' or 'I'm sorry'. She also hardly ever calls her father, Haymitch. She calls him Mitch instead, and they have silent conversations with each other with just their eyes or the touch of their hand. Making her father most odd around her too. Maybe Hannah is also becoming odd because of Euphemia Coin.
When Euphemia Coin asked if Hannah had any questions for her yesterday after her very long and tedious lesson with her. Tedious, that was another word she had learnt.
'Hannah I know that this is quite tedious but it must be done'.
Hannah had said no she hadn't, and Euphemia Coin had looked very upset at that.
"Is she there?" her father asks. They had been standing in silence. Hannah thinking about all the ways Euphemia Coin was odd, she forgot about her father and Euphemia Coin.
"I don't know" Euphemia Coin goes to sit on the bed. She does this so precisely as if there are baby bird eggs on there and she doesn't want to crush them. She then folds her leg over her knee. Apparently this is how ladies - which are sophisticated females - must always sit. "I wish they would just let us off this train. This waiting …", she doesn't finish her sentence, which surely must be quite rude. "Maybe I should", she says after a minute. "Maybe, I should change", she says getting up off the bed, "at least retouch my make-up", and she walks towards the mirror to gaze at her reflection.
"You look perfect. Princess", and she turns at her father's name for her, but as Hannah has already learnt, this does not mean she is a princess, "I can't have you cracking, not now. We need to hold it together. At least until we get into the penthouse. Hannah's not worried. Are you Hannah?"
Hannah moves her attention from Euphemia Coin to her father who is smiling at her, even though his eyes still look scared. "I am not worried Papa", she says and hugs him tighter, taking advantage of the over affection he has been showing her the last two days. That she has been craving for so long. She then gives him a small peck on the cheek, because as Euphemia Coin has explained, that is something very sweet little girls can do. But strictly only the cheek, unless it is her Papa, then she can kiss him on the lips, because he is family.
"I am not worried either", she says brightly smiling at Hannah. "I just need to get off this train", she says before perching back down on the bed and crossing her leg over the other.
But then she sharply uncrosses her legs and puts her head between her two knees, and starts breathing heavily.
Hannah frowns at her father for an explanation.
"We all need to get off this train. Just preferably not at this stop", her father. "Hannah, go get some water from the tap in the bathroom for your mother", her father says, setting her on the ground.
"OK", Hannah says. Not really happy about being put down. Haymitch now keeps referring to Euphemia Coin as 'your mother', but truth be told to Hannah, she cannot see it. Hannah knows that she looks like her Papa but she doesn't look anything like this woman that they claim to be hers. She is like a cross between a swan and a toucan.
Another truth is that Hannah is actually a little worried. Euphemia Coin explained to her the schedule yesterday and it seemed to be a long time before there would be any fighting, and a lot of talking and smiling. The fighting she was more confident about, she had gone through the movies again with her father, even though she had known all of them off-by-heart, just to reacquaint herself with them.
In the bathroom Hannah turns on the tap and watches it run for a while. She knows what a tap is of-course, but she always has to go to the lake for water and put special water purification tablets her Papa gets from the Capitol in it and wait for a whole thirty minutes if she wants to drink it. She must watch the tap run for a whole minute before she realises she has to find something to put the water in. But looking around the bathroom she can't find anything.
She turns off the tap.
"I can't fi-", she starts to call out to her father but finds him on the bed with Euphemia Coin, an arm around her as she cuddles him.
Hannah falls silent and frowns.
"It's OK, Hannah. Come here".
She walks towards them carefully. A strangeness settling in her as she watches Euphemia Coin grip onto her father's shirt, while he trails his fingers up and down her forearm. Haymitch opens his spare arm out to Hannah and she runs into him and settles on him just like Euphemia Coin has. Hannah's hand accidentally brushes against hers and she quickly pulls it away, tucking it safely away. But she does stare into Euphemia Coin's greeny blue eyes, just as Euphemia Coin stares into Hannah's own eyes. Euphemia Coin's face looks as though it has a thick coat of white flour on her it, it matches her skin and her dress, but her eye lashes have gold butterflies in them, the same colour as her hair. She smiles at Hannah, propping a hand underneath her cheek so it elevates her head, she then brings her other hand round towards Hannah - who watches it with weariness as it comes closer to her head, but then Euphemia Coin's hand changes it's course and she strokes Hannah's nose instead.
"I wish we had some of Katniss' berries", she whispers, and Hannah clocks the way her father's fingers still and dig into Euphemia Coin's skin. Euphemia Coin brings her hand from Hannah's nose and rests on her father's chest.
"Let's get some rest together", her father says, and he kisses the top of Euphemia Coin's forehead. "They'll call us when they're ready for us".
~xXx~
The knock on the door makes Hannah wake up instantly. She is usually a light sleeper from her time being in the woods, but her father and Euphemia Coin carries on sleeping.
The knock comes again and she moves to get up and answer the door. But this must wake her father up and he stops her with his fist locked around her elbow.
"Wher-"
But the third knock cuts him off.
He shakes her head at her, "stay here with Effie. Effie", he shakes her awake, but the movement seems to of too awoken her and she sits up so her father can get out of bed.
"Haymitch your shirt", Euphemia Coin's hand chases after him.
"It's fine", he says, tucking his shirt in his trousers and straightening his jacket. He opens the door a crack, before turning back at Hannah and Euphemia Trinket. "It's show time".
They follow the person in uniform - the attendant, Hannah corrects herself - down the corridor. Hannah's hand firmly fixed in her father's, watching Euphemia Coin walk on her white spike shoes in front of them.
"There is still so many of them", she says, and Hannah looks up to see that she is looking out the window. But Hannah is too short to see. "I have never known it to be so packed".
"Neither have I".
They stop suddenly and Hannah is so busy looking at Euphemia Coin's shoes that she walks right into the back of her legs.
Euphemia turns her neck behind her to look at her. Just like a swan.
Hannah looks up at her guiltily.
Euphemia Coin raises her eyebrows at her.
"I beg your pardon", Hannah says.
"That's quite alright, Hannah", she says.
"Two minutes", the attendant says.
"OK", Euphemia Coin.
"OK", her father.
And they turn her to face the metal wall, and then Euphemia Coin starts to fiddle with her father's shirt again. Trying to make it straight as possible until her father orders her to stop. Hannah then feels something tug on one of her braids Euphemia Coin re-did this morning.
"What are you doing", her father whispers and Hannah doesn't know why as they are the only three here, but she feels like she wants to cry. She was so happy when Euphemia Coin re-did her braids this morning, so that she would look her best in the movies.
"It will hide her face from the cameras".
"The whole of Panem knows what she looks like already, Effie. It's too fucking late to do a switch".
Euphemia Coin hisses, and moves round to undo the other braid.
"It will protect her from all the camera flashes. She's not used to it, Haymitch. All those people out there…", she trails off.
"Fuck sake, Effie".
The attendant arrives back but Hannah has firmly declared herself in a mood now and doesn't care what happens.
"Fuck Effie, the boy", her father suddenly says, and Hannah feels Euphemia Coin leave her side in a small gust.
Neither of them seem to have noticed that she is in a mood, and she snatches her hand out of her father's and firmly crosses it over her chest to show that she is really angry. But her father doesn't make any effort to grab it back, he is too busy talking to the attendant, asking them to 'stall it'. Whatever that means.
"Sorry, no can do sir", and Hannah watches as the attendant's white hand comes in front of her gaze and pulls at a handle she hadn't notices was there. It makes a creaking noise and -
Flash.
White flashes.
Lots of white flashes.
Hannah can't see and she stumbles backwards onto her father.
She raises her hands in front of her eyes but all she can see is spots. White, green, yellow, red, pink, purple.
Flash.
Lots of flashes.
Shouting.
There is lots of shouting.
People calling her name.
She feels her father pick her up and she buries her head in his shoulder. He starts to move.
People continue to shout her name.
They shout her father's name.
They shout Effie.
They shout Trinket.
They try to grab at Hannah.
She can feel them touching her.
She wants to bite they're throats but her father tells her to keep her head hidden and that it will be over soon.
"Haymitch", she hears Euphemia Coin cry his name in desperation, and she wants to peak and see what they are doing to her.
But her father suddenly crouches and before she knows it there is another child in her father's arms. A boy. With round glasses and a very round face.
Time seems to stop as she analyses this boy through the small gaps in her hair. His round, fat face. His thick black glasses. Red, red lips. Blonde hair and blue, blue eyes. He looks like a pig. She frowns at him but then her father starts moving again, and she has to bury herself back in her father's shoulder as the flashes catch her off guard again.
"Don't let go of my jacket, Effie", is all she can really make out from all the shouting as it is said so close to her face. Then the string of curse words - as Euphemia Coin - calls them that come out of her father's mouth like a long line of string.
Then suddenly it is over. There is no flashes. There is no tugging of clothes and grabbing. There is no shouting.
"Take the boy into the other room", she hears her father order. He then pats her back.
"It's OK. It's over. You're not really hurt are you? Let's take a look at you", he says setting her down.
Hannah's vision is bleary and her father wipes them with his thumbs.
"No crying", he says.
She hadn't realised she had been crying.
But it had been so … and so…
Now that she could see better, she could see that her father's jacket had been torn at the shoulder, his hair look disheveled and he looked like he might have a bruise emerging on his left cheek. That made Hannah want to cry again.
Euphemia Coin entered back in the room.
She looked mad and marched straight up to her father.
"Did they hurt you?" he asks her.
"I don't know. I feel my dress may be torn a little at the back, but it's nothing", and she goes to rest her hand on her father's swollen cheek, but he flicks it away and turns her around to inspect the back of her dress.
"Your perfect", he says after inspection. "A gallon of hairspray on that wig and white leather that fits like a second skin. Kudos to you. You wore the right armour".
Euphemia Coin turns and takes her father's face in her hand and inspects his entire face. "I have some cream that will clear that up". She then looks at the rip on his jacket before inspecting the rest of him. "Are you hurt elsewhere?"
He shakes his head and looks at Hannah, and Euphemia Coin jumps, as if she suddenly forgot she was there.
"Are you OK, Sweetheart?" she asks. Euphemia Coin rests a hand on her shoulder. "Did they pull your hair? I should have left it as it was".
"No, you were right", her father. "You protected her. I never imagined it would be like that".
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Euphemia Coin asks her, resting her other hand on Hannah's other shoulder, so that she is kind of boxed in the woman's almost embrace.
Hannah looks up at Euphemia Coin, she can feel her eyes watering again. She shakes her head, no, because her father is right, she is not hurt not really. But then she shakes her head, yes, because she actually hurts everywhere. She feels like she is going to combust. She didn't like that experience at all. And without being able to stop it, she runs into Euphemia Coin's body for shelter and comfort.
Euphemia Coin picks her up, and she is surprised how soft she feels and how nice she smells. She buries her head into Euphemia Coin's shoulder and underneath all the sweet smelling smells that cloud Euphemia Coin, is another, more comforting smell, that Hannah somehow recognises and makes her feel light, melty almost like, and she can feel herself start to calm down.
"Fucking animals", her father says.
Euphemia Coin rests her cheek against Hannah's forehead and Hannah's heartbeat begins to calm down. "Maybe we should give her another sleeping pill?"
"She has to be on stage in a few hours", and her father kicks the ground before throwing some punches.
Hannah watches her father pace the room like a wild animal, muttering his string of curse words. He then suddenly stops and looks at her, and goes to collect her out of Euphemia Coin's arms and into is; putting kisses on her forehead.
"Now that is a picture", a new voice says, and Hannah raises her head to see a dark skinned man and woman, more dark skinned then her Papa. The man looks normal. But the woman, she looks like one of them, and Hannah hides again in her Papa.
"Cinna. Portia", her father says, almost in relief.
Cinna. Portia. Euphemia Coin had said that they would be her stylists. And a stylists job is to decide how a tribute should look. They were very important people.
"Are you OK?" the other voice asks. The female.
"Quite. Hannah is a bit shoken up", Euphemia Coin.
"I am not surprised. I haven't seen anything like it".
"With all respect, we don't have time for pleasantries", the male. "We have to decide on our images".
"This is Hannah", her father starts to pry her out of his arms but Hannah doesn't want it. She wants to go back on the train and back to District 12. She wants to rewind time.
"Not Hannah. Hannah is perfect as she is. Portia can put her to rest until just before the show. It's you two we have to worry about. How did you two become a two. Why did you keep her? Why did you give her up? Are you angry at each other? Do you love each other? Is it love or is it just the love for your child? We have to get the angles of your stories perfect. You both are what are vital to Hannah's success, but more so you, Effie".
"I'm ready".
"I hope so. Because you might get a lot of backlash. From both Capitols and victors".
"I'm ready. I can do this".
"She's made of strong stuff", her father.
~xXx~
Hannah screamed when they tried to pry her away from her father, so in the end they settled her on his lap while they talked. She tried to follow the conversation but could only really understand fragments. Euphemia Coin had grabbed her ankle at some point and was doing those soothing patterns on her skin again, so Hannah decided to lie down on her Papa because her body was beginning to feel very heavy with sleep.